Some more house sagas: the joys of tenants

When I was looking at buying my house, I remember the estate agent and various other people telling me how the two small apartments at the back of my house were a major asset as the tenants would pay my bond and in theory, this is a great idea. In practice, you have to live with these people and make sure that they pay their rent every month, don't run up the utility bills or make a nuisance of themselves. More easily said than done.

Before I could move in, I had to kick out the lunatic drug addict squatter and I can't help but think that his presence there set the tone for all the crazy tenants that followed. In 2 years, I had 3 different sets of tenants in that place, all of whom left under a cloud until finally a friend of mine asked whether I knew of a place for his daughter to stay while she was studying and she has been there a year now and is a pleasure to live with.

When I bought the house, I agreed to let the tenants were already living in the other apartment remain there. The husband is hardworking and is one of those rare people who will actually help tidy the yard instead of expecting you to clean up after him. His wife on the other hand, has always struck me as having one or two sandwiches short in her picnic basket and his eldest child, a boy, is somewhat hyperactive. This is a dangerous combination because his mother used to regularly complain that she didn't feel like walking a few blocks to take her 7-year-old son to school and back and didn't see why he shouldn't walk home unattended, despite the fact that this means that she expects a 7-year old to cross an extremely busy road by himself. Of course he was hit by a car 6 months ago, breaking his arm and requiring x-rays for a possible head injury.

More recently, she was told not to allow her children to play in the yard unattended or to allow her son to kick balls in the confined space which has a set of glass doors and large windows and to take them to the park so that they can play freely. She has chosen to disregard my requests, instead she has been telling others that I dislike her children.

I came home on Saturday to find that the concrete wash trough outside had fallen over, breaking the legs and the shower drain pipe.

She has not even come to offer an apology or explanation for what happened, despite the fact that the other tenant heard the kids playing outside in the vicinity, and the ensuing crash. Their irresponsible mother suggested to my neighbour that perhaps a strong gust of wind toppled the heavy concrete basin that required 3 people to set in place.

The major annoyance was finding the shower outlet broken as well and on closer inspection, a crack in the pipe that meant that I had to use a dremel tool to cut off the cracked section deep in the wall. I had to work on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so I couldn't fix the pipe until today and my other tenant and I were forced to bath in buckets the past few days.

Repairing a pipe in this way is very far from ideal because if my join starts leaking, it will leak into the wall but the only way to fix it properly is to chop the shower floor open and replace the entire section of pipe, something I am not prepared to do right now.

A socket, an elbow and a Y-join to attach the wash trough outlet later, I was able to take a shower and my joins all appear to be tight so my amateur plumbing skills aren't too bad.

I am in no mood to put up with any more from this woman and her poor parenting skills and they will be getting notice. I know that it will not be easy for them to find another place to accommodate a small family at the price they were paying, but I can't have them trashing my place and if I renovate their place properly, I could easily get double the rent that I am currently charging. If I have learned one thing in the last three years, it's that tenants with children will shred your sanity and trash your property.